Procedures, Work Instructions & Documents served as guidelines only!

[Stijloor]

…just to butt in… I believe that procedures (or working instructions) are made not really for the person who is already working on that process for a very long time…

…I believe, procedures & working instructions are made for:

- to standardized the step by step execution of an activity... to at least minimize “variance” that can contribute to the defect…

- for new employee or personnel who is going to perform the activity… it should serve him as guidelines of how to execute the activity step by step in a correct manner (even without the full supervision on the old timers)…

(there could be more significant reasons but those two I have given, for me, is already valid reason to establish and document your workplace)

…just imagine, if a certain process has no documented procedures and the only person who knew how to do it suddenly vanish on the surface of the earth without trace!?! :mg: this is one thing that ISO wants to prevent…

Let's add "Preservation of Knowledge." The most important asset an organization has.

Stijloor.

 

[JaneB]

I was looking through ISO 10013 - 2003 Quality Management System - Guidelines for Quality Management Systems Documentation recently (as one does, when one is over-Olympic Gamed!

It lists all of these as purposes & benefits of having documentation, and even added in that ''includes but is not limited to' phrase as well!:

a) describing the quality management system of the organization;
b) providing information for cross-functional groups so that they may better understand interrelationships;
c) communicating to employees management’s commitment to quality;
d) helping employees to understand their role within the organization, thus giving them an increased sense of
purpose and importance of their work;
e) providing mutual understanding between employees and management;
f) providing a basis for expectations of work performance;
g) stating how things are to be done in order to achieve specified requirements;
h) providing objective evidence that specified requirements have been achieved;
i) providing a clear, efficient framework of operation;
j) providing a basis for training new employees and periodic re-training of current employees;
k) providing a basis for order and balance within the organization;
l) providing consistency in operations based on documented processes;
m) providing a basis for continual improvement;
n) providing customer confidence based on documented systems;
o) demonstrating to interested parties the capabilities within the organization;
p) providing a clear framework of requirements for suppliers;
q) providing a basis for auditing the quality management system;
r) providing a basis for evaluating the effectiveness and continuing suitability of the quality management system.[/I]

Now, not all of these will be applicable in every single organisation, but it's a good list to do some thinking about, and at least some of them will be. Sometimes folks forget that even if they don't 'need' the procedure themselves (because they know how to do it properly now), there's still more than one purpose to having one.

And no, it sure as hell isn't to do the 'load A into B if you feel like it'!

That said, it's sometimes hard for engineering/manufacturing (with its focus on the exact) to understand that at times procedures do need to leave decisions up to the intelligence of the responsible person. It's infinitely easier - and mroe intelligent - to write a step that says something like 'escalate complex cases to to the MD' rather than attempting to write a procedure that states what an employee should do in every single case.

As always, horses for courses. I take a lot of comfort in knowing, when seated in an aeroplane, that the building & maintenance thereof IS specified down to the super fine detail!